How to Add Rain Effect to your Picture

It's one of those days, when you have this kind of melancholic feeling and wish that it's raining outside but it's not. So, you pick a picture and decide to do a rain effect on it. Or maybe today your design theme is inspired by that Rihanna's song...'You can stand under my umbrella...ella..ella' and you have your model, an umbrella but sadly no rain. No matter what your situation is, this tutorial on how to add rain effect to your photograph will help solve your problem and create more drama for your photo;)

These are the before and after images:

FINAL PREVIEW

1. Open your image.

2. Create a new layer. Layer > New > Layer. Set this layer mode to Screen.

3. Working with the new layer, Go to Edit > Fill. Use this setting:
Use: 50% Gray
Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Leave the Preserve Transparency box unchecked.

4. Now, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Use this setting:
Amount: Just leave the default setting. Mine is 2.03%
Distribution: Uniform
Check the monochromatic option.

5. Next, go to Image > Adjustment > Auto Level.

6. Then, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set the angle and distance to your preference. Mine is -76 for the angle and 56 pixels for the distance.

7. Now, we're going to adjust the density of the rain. Go to Image > Adjustment > Level. In the input level chart, slide the black and white slider until you get your desired density.

8. If the rain appear too sharp, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the radius to your liking. Not too high though. Mine is just 0.6 pixel.

9. One final step...Adjust the opacity of the rain layer until you get the perfect rain. And there you go, you've done your first rain effect in Photoshop.

Picture Time!

My fellow blogspot mommy-to-be Nicole in Australia at YummyMummyProject posted some recent pics of her belly on her blog and this has inspired me to share a few with all of you.

I follow Nicole's blog because she's a workout mama like myself AND because her and I are due almost the same time. It's pretty cool to see how her pregnancy is going compared to mine... and the fact that's she across the globe! I love the internet :)

I've posted pics on Facebook, but since not all my readers are FB'ers, I'll share here too. First is a side pic of my belly post-workout. You can't really tell, but my belly button has almost turned into an outie.

Second picture is from New Years Eve, right before my hubby and I headed out for a party at one of our friend's house. (disclaimer... all I did was eat... no alcohol of course).
For exercise today, well, I've been battling a cold for about a week. I swear, I've not been sick for longer than 2 days in a LONG LONG time. But, this one was one that just didn't want to leave. I trained really hard yesterday doing a metabolic circuit for an hour after I taught boot camp, but today all I did was go for a walk, wash the floors and shovel... no lifting because I was now just finally feeling better. I guess pregnancy really does depress the immune system. Thankfully I'm only battling a cold and nothing more serious.

Hope everyone is looking forward to a great week back at reality! Now that the holiday season has passed, there is a lot to do in 2010.

Best, Cass

Picture a Christmas

I'm still here. Barely.

I was released last Sunday, but am now the first counselor in primary. However, we have a christmas program coming up on December 12th, so they are having me do double duty until that is over.

I would still like to post ideas and flipcharts as they come, so don't forget me entirely!

So two weeks ago, I tried to introduce the song "Picture a Christmas". It was a TOTAL flop. Probably my worst singing time ever. I think I confused the kids more than I helped them.

So, I thought more about it during the week, and came up with something more simple and MUCH more effective.

In fact, we learned BOTH verses very well, in only 10 minutes.

I appologize that these are not *quality pictures. I remembered to take them right before leaving for church, so it was just a spread-them-out-and-snap-a-picture moment.

I found pictures to correlate with the things sung in the song:

Picture a STABLE

Picture a sacred silent, NIGHT

ANGEL, STAR, BABY JESUS, etc.

you can find my file of pictures HERE. I found them from google searches and sugardoodle clipart. 

(NOTE: the pictures are NOT in the order of the song. I just formatted it that way...because I was in a rush and put pictures in when I found them.)

Picture a Christmas

I went through the 1st verse and put the pictures up on the blackboard with a magnet, as we got to each phrase, so they would understand which pictures went to which phrase. 

Then, we sang through the song together. I took a small 5x7 picture frame, and "framed" each picture we sung about. Then, I called up a child to do the same thing. I think it was a sunbeam. She did perfect. Some of the pictures are oriented landscape while others are portraits, so they had to rotate the frame to fit the picture.

After we had done that a few times (each time a different child "framed" the pictures), I mixed them up and scattered them around the blackboard. They did the same process of framing the pictures, but it was more tricky since they now had to "find" the pictures. 

I told the children I was watching for those that "knew" the song really well to come help me. That really motivated them to sing out and try their best. I was thrilled that this activity worked well from the sunbeams all the way to the 11 year olds. We were able to sing it OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and...you get the point. 

Again, this activity could work for any song, but I liked it because we "pictured" each event of the song.

Carla Bruni Sarkozy - Alisa Connan Portrait Photoshoot Carla Bruni Sarkozy - Alisa Connan Portrait picture pic image Photoshoot gallery

Carla Bruni - Alisa Connan Portrait Photoshoot is a French songwriter, singer, and former model. Since February 2008, she has been married to the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. ( wikipedia.org )
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